BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- The most important global issue last year was of course the international economic crisis. It came from the US and badly affected all continents and all other states.
Although it was a domestic development in the US, Barack Obama's election as US president was closely followed worldwide. He will take office on Jan. 20 and become the most prestigious man in the world.
2009 has begun with a war launched by Israel to eliminate Hamas.
To stop Israel's attacks, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a Mideast tour including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and finally Egypt. Arabs aren't as interested in Palestinians as Turkey is. Is this because the Turkish Ottomans ruled Palestine longer than the Arabs did?
I don't think that Israel can eliminate Hamas, because it has the full backing of Iran. Hamas was established by Iran, which didn't like Fatah. A state like Turkey couldn't destroy the terrorist PKK, and the US couldn't destroy al-Qaeda. Israel can only defeat Hamas if it loses its Iranian support. In my opinion, Israel tried to prevent Palestinians from voting for Hamas.
In a nutshell, 2009 began with a financial crisis and Mideast war which disturbed the world's 6.5 billion people. But these negative developments are mere bumps compared with World War II, which was humanity's attempt at nothing less than suicide. This is how historians see it. Another suicide attempt isn't possible, because it wouldn't fail a second time. But through small and medium wars, borders may change, and states could rise and fall.